Did you know some Old Testament healing miracles were repeated in the New Testament? We will look at healing miracles that repeat in the New Testament and see why they happen again.

In my last post, I talked about God’s ultimate healing for sickness through resurrection. In this post, I want to transition to the New Testament by talking about healing miracles done in both the Old and New Testaments.

You may have noticed there weren’t an incredible amount of Old Testament healing miracles we covered so far. As we transition to the New Testament and talk about the healing ministry of Jesus and the apostles, we will see a lot more miracles in number and kind.

What do these miracles mean? Why are there so many? These are some of the questions I hope to answer as we talk about healing. We will also address what the significance of these miracles is for us today.

Expansion of Old Testament Healing Miracles

There is a plethora of healing miracles in the New Testament Gospels and Acts. Why so many? Whether the Old Testament contains all the miracles done by the prophets or not could be questioned. We cannot deny the multiplication of miracles in the New Testament.

Especially Jesus’s ministry has a lot of miracles, and many of them not repeating from the Old Testament. Jesus does incredible things God did not do in the Old Testament. There are whole new categories Jesus’s ministry of healing brought to the table.

He did not heal in the same way God did in the Old Testament in many cases. It’s not only that there are more healings but that Jesus did multiple healings of multiple people in whole crowds during His ministry. We will be looking at many of these in detail in the coming posts.

Repeating Old Testament Healing Miracles

So what Old Testament healing miracles were repeated in the New Testament? First, there is at least one example of a barren woman, even in her old age, bearing a child. Elizabeth experienced God’s healing power of her womb (Luke 1:5-25, 57-66).

In the Old Testament, we saw the Syrian commander Naaman be cleansed of his leprosy in the Jordan River (2 Kings 5:1-19). Jesus will heal many people with leprosy in His ministry.

He adds to this healing the blind, deaf, mute, paralyzed, those with fevers, people with disabilities like dropsy, a withered hand (like King Jeroboam’s withered hand in 1 Kings 13:4-6), and a curved spine. That’s just scratching the surface.

We only saw a few resurrections in the Old Testament but Jesus does many more resurrections in the New Testament. Even the disciples get in on God’s power to raise the dead. In one instance, He raises a widow’s son in Nain right in the middle of the funeral (Luke 7:11-17).

What Repeating Old Testament Healing Miracles Shows

Repeating these Old Testament healing miracles first shows that Jesus continued God’s healing work in His ministry. This was not a completely different experience that was new to the crowds that followed Jesus.

The same God who healed people in the Old Testament is the same God who ministered to the people in healing through Jesus. Jesus is the same as God. He did the same things God did in the Old Testament, and so much more.

Repeating Old Testament healing miracles also shows that Jesus is the Son of God and the Messiah prophesied about in the Old Testament. Specifically, John the Baptist at one time asked Jesus through his disciples if He was the one they were looking for or if they should look for someone else (Matthew 11:7-19; Luke 7:24-35).

Jesus responded that everything He was doing was fulfilling the prophecies of the prophets who saw His day and ministry coming. Jesus is the Anointed One the Jews were expecting and waiting for. They didn’t understand everything He did and said, but the signs of His coming were clear because of His ministry to the people.

What’s the Significance of Repeating Old Testament Healing Miracles for Today?

First, it shows that Jesus is the same no matter the timeperiod (Hebrews 13:8). Jesus is all-powerful and all-good. He not only wants to heal you. He has the power to do it. If He healed people in the Gospels, there’s nothing stopping Him from healing today.

Second, based on the first point, we can ask Jesus for healing today. I believe His healing ministry shows us there’s nothing we cannot ask Jesus to heal. I am a quadriplegic who cannot move below my neck or breathe on my own for extended time. But I believe Jesus can heal me. There’s nothing beyond His power. So many people don’t ask because they don’t think He still heals. But He does!

Finally, our experience of Jesus’s healing is only limited by our faith. We are the ones who think something is impossible. Jesus never said anything was impossible. In fact, Luke reminds us that nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37). Take the most impossible thing you can think of with your condition and lay it before Jesus. Watch what He does!

This is the beginning of our study of healing in the New Testament. We will be going deeper into healing in the New Testament in following posts. May the Lord bless us as study His Word Him do the things we could only dream of. As we move from Old Testament healing miracles repeated in the New Testament, we will see even greater things that God has done.

Praying for Your Healing

Please let me have the honor of praying for you.

Mighty and gracious Jesus, I bring my brother and sister in You to You and lay them at Your feet. We have so many cares in this world, especially with our afflictions. Today, we lay these cares at Your feet and put them in Your hands because we know only You can change our situation. Only You can heal our diseases and disabilities. We humbly ask You to intervene in our lives and bodies and astound the doctors and unbelievers. Thank You for Your saving grace that includes our healing. In the infinitely powerful name of Jesus we ask, Amen.

Up Next

We have seen how God has healed people with the same types of miracles in both Testaments. Next, we will look at our introduction to the New Testament healings by examining how it describes them.

Image by Josep Monter Martinez from Pixabay